Integrated circuit systems perform a wide variety of computational and data handling functions. Integrated circuit systems may comprise or may be found in devices including but not limited to computers such as laptop and desktop computers, telephones, personal digital assistant (“PDA”) devices, video and audio devices such as entertainment systems, servers, routers, and switches. Integrated circuit systems may include a large number of integrated circuit devices. These integrated circuit devices perform specific functions in the context of the integrated circuit systems of which they are components.
During the operation of such integrated circuit systems, the configurations of many of the integrated circuit devices may have to be determined and many of the integrated circuit devices may have to be configured or re-configured as the integrated circuit system functions. This is accomplished by sending control information to the devices and by gathering control information from the devices. Control information may include without being limited to, for example, information that directs a device to accept data information such as video information or audio information at a specified rate, information that specifies screen size, information that specifies refresh rate, and information that turns a device on or off or otherwise manages power consumption. Herein, “control information” includes status information and requests for status information. Data information may include, for example, information representing a video image to be processed and displayed by a graphics controller and a display screen. An integrated circuit device may be configured when it is booted, during operations after booting, or between operations after booting. In some architectures such as the PCI Express® (“PCIe®”) architecture, control information is typically embedded in the same information streams as data information.
Where control information and data information are embedded in the same information streams, devices that handle those information streams such as switches are burdened with both control information and data information. If such devices are required to handle only control information, they may perform with greater efficiency.